Sometime down the road an enterprising playwright is going to write a one-act play titled “The Persecution and Assassination of Richard Dreyfuss as Performed by Social Media Harridans Who Recoiled at Unseemly, Anti-Woke Bluster During a Cabot Theater Appearance in Beverly, Massachusetts.”
It happened last weekend, and it won’t go away.
We all understand that Dreyfuss is an irate anti-wokester, given his occasional take-it-or-leave-it viewpoints that read in some circles as sexist or transphobic. He’s previously expressed alarm over the 2024 inclusion mandates and the teaching of wokester theology in public schools.
Social media pearl-clutchers claimed Dreyfuss was repeatedly guilty of wrongthink during the Cabot appearance, disparaging the #MeToo movement and ranting about how we “shouldn’t be listening to some 10 year old who says they want to be a boy instead of a girl.”
Near the end of the Cabot show, which had been billed as a Jaws screening event plus a mild-mannered, anecdotal Dreyfuss q & a, the 76-year-old actor complained that “fifty years ago and without telling anybody they took civics out of the curriculum at public schools in America.
“We have no knowledge of who the hell we are and if we don’t get it back soon we’re all gonna die. We have to make sure that your kids are not the last generation of Americans, and you know exactly what I’m talking about.”
Except Dreyfuss’s quirky manner has been leaving a stronger impression that what he actually said. Last night an attorney friend messaged me about Dreyfuss’s erratic appearance — “senility or alcohol?” This morning an industry pro wrote “what’s going on with Richard Dreyfuss? Acting strangely. Has gauze pads or something on back of both hands. Medical problems? Prescription drugs affecting him?”
Dreyfuss needs to release a statement that clarifies what he meant, and needs to do so with concise, thought-through, well-honed language. He needs to make it clear that he’s in full possession of his faculties. Not a difficult thing — just do it.
